Regular Karate... as most of you will probably remember is a reference to Hard Eight.

John: I will fuck you up if you fuck with me, ok? I know three kinds of Karate: Jujitsu, Aikido, and regular Karate.

I'm the third kind of karate... the regular kind.

BTW, this is my favorite nickname on the board. I didn't get it forever, I always scratched my head, then a couple weeks ago I was thinking of Reilly, and I started howling. Kudos.

Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary: the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Chris (or Kris) Kelvin is the name of the main character in Tarkovsky's great film Solaris. He's one of those who are in constant search for something, haunted by memories, driven by an impulse to find answers, lost happiness and ephemeral beauty. Well, that's my personal interpretation. Nevertheless, I have always been fascinated by the film and the character.